Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh announced on Sunday that he had conferred on ways and mechanisms to prevent further price falls in the global market in meetings with high-ranking Qatari and Kuwaiti officials.
"Some meetings have been held with the Qatari and Kuwaiti Emirs as well as the two countries' oil officials and the causes of reduction in oil prices and mechanisms to prevent this trend went under study," Zanganeh said.
"These meetings are aimed at usual consultations and exchange of views that OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) members have in case of an unusual situation in the market, specially when an OPEC meeting is close," he added.
Zanganeh underlined that unity and strength of the OPEC members to meet their long- and short-term interests are among the important goals of the cartel.
In relevant remarks on Saturday, Zanganeh underlined that the OPEC members were determined to reverse the trend of the falling market prices.
"It is important that the OPEC members are feeling the necessity for strengthening cooperation to restructure the current situation in the market and it is OPEC's responsibility to adopt proper action in this regard," Zanganeh said after meeting Venezuelan Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez in Tehran.
Referring to the 166th meeting of OPEC due to be held on November 27, he said, "It is important that all OPEC members narrow down the gaps in their ideas during their bilateral and multilateral consultations."
Also in September, Zanganeh called on the OPEC members to make joint efforts to keep oil prices from falling further.
“Given the (ongoing) downward trend of the oil prices, the OPEC members should make efforts to offset their production to keep the prices from further instability,” he said.
OPEC is an international organization and economic cartel whose mission is to coordinate the policies of the oil-producing countries. The goal is to secure a steady income to the member states and to collude in influencing world oil prices through economic means.
OPEC is an intergovernmental organization that was created at the Baghdad Conference on 10–14 September 1960, by Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Later it was joined by nine more governments: Libya, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Indonesia, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, Angola, and Gabon. OPEC was headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland before moving to Vienna, Austria, on September 1, 1965.